Lots of people who would otherwise know better have a strong belief in an all-knowing, all-seeing god who has a mean streak – he spends his time smiting those who break his laws e.g. “sin”. While I think this is preposterous it does help keep some people within boundaries of civil society. Truth is, for most people self-regulation is as preposterous as belief in an omniscient being with a personal vendetta – an invisible hand, so to speak.

If ever there was a need in the belief of an invisible hand, a regulator with enforcement, it would be in the financial industry. For some reason these folks, or at least the so-called regulators who were supposed to be in charge of them, got it into their heads that self-regulation would work just fine for the bankers and traders and other miscreants who went buck-wild on the market and brought the whole system down in a heap.